The Richmond Progressive Alliance has voted to express its support for keeping the Morning Mix in the Drive Time at 8 am on KPFA.  Their decision was announced by Marilyn Langlois at a meeting of KPFA’s local station board on June 14, 2014.

In part, Marilyn said,

We find this is a really excellent program that projects a lot of voices from the community on topics of general issues both in Richmond and throughout the bay area.    We’ve had great feedback from our local residents as well as activists all over the bay area.  In particular, Andres Soto’s show which . . . covers not only Richmond issues (which, let’s face it, Richmond is currently on the cutting edge of progressive initiatives in the bay area and many people are interested in that) but he also covers issues of housing, violence prevention, environmental justice, Native American rights, racial issues, immigrant rights — and international issues too with really interesting guests from Haiti, El Salvador, Cuba and many places . . We think people in our listening area need to hear these voices from our community.

Here is their letter

Re:  Request to re-instate The Morning Mix weekdays from 8:00 – 9:00 am

Dear Mr. Pirodsky,

The Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) is a grassroots, volunteer-based organization founded in 2003 in Richmond, California, aimed at eliminating the excessive influence of corporations in local politics and strengthening the ability of local residents to ensure that city policies meet their needs, especially the needs of the most vulnerable.   Our organization clearly has much in common with the values of KPFA and Pacifica.

We appreciated the introduction of the weekday 8:00-9:00 program, The Morning Mix, a few years ago, as it has provided the listening audience in Richmond and the greater Bay Area with a variety of excellent programs on topics of interest that are rarely, if ever, heard elsewhere.  Andres Soto’s program, for example, has included many segments on progressive initiatives in Richmond that communities throughout the region can relate to, on housing, violence prevention, environmental justice, local arts scene and more.

The RPA learned, to our dismay, that you had made the decision last month to cancel The Morning Mix and re-schedule some of its programs to shorter time slots in the mid-afternoon.  We believe it is extremely valuable for the morning drive time audience to be able to hear the diversity of programming that The Morning Mix offered, and hence we urge you to reverse your decision and re-instate The Morning Mix to weekdays at 8:00–9:00 am.

Sincerely,
Marilyn Langlois
Mike Parker
Co-coordinators, Richmond Progressive Alliance
1021 Macdonald Ave.
Richmond, CA  94801